Wyoming’s 157 pound junior Andy McCulley goes for a pin recently in the Cowboy Open held in Laramie. (Photo via @WyoWrestle Twitter)

Cowboy wrestling made the trip to Boise this weekend to take on the nationally ranked Broncos. Boise State, who came into the dual at #19 has been a perennial member of the top 25 for quite some time. Mark Branch brought his team to Boise to stamp another signature victory on his already impressive resume.

The Pokes start the night with a victory from redshirt freshman Brent Havlik in his first collegiate dual meet, a 9-6 victory over Austin Dewey. The Pokes next turned to redshirt freshman #16 ranked Ben Stroh to keep it going against #5 ranked Jake Swartz at 184 lbs. Stroh put together a fantastic performance at the Cowboy Open, but lost in his first collegiate dual 5-1.

Shane Woods would get his chance to give the Pokes the lead at 197 taking on Cody Dixon and a lead he would give them with a 10-3 decision to give the Pokes a 6-3 lead. Leland Pfeifer got the start at heavyweight tonight replacing the injured Tanner Harms. JT Felix made quick work of the much smaller Pfeifer by pinning him at the 1:19 mark in the first period. Boise would go up 9-6.

The sixth ranked Tyler Cox would faceoff with Rami Haddadin at 125 and Cox would have to come from behind to win this one 3-1 to tie it up at 9. Drew Templeman would be up next to take on  Boise’s Ty Stevenson and would come away with a victory to put the Pokes up 12-9 at the 133 weight class. Cole Mendenhall was up next at 141 taking on Travis Himmelman. This one went to overtime when Himmelman hit an escape with seconds left in the match, but Mendenhall put the match away with a takedown in overtime to put the Pokes up 15-9.

Brandon Richardson up at 149 taking on the Broncos’ Chris Castillo, and Richardson got down early but battled back to send this to overtime when Castillo was called for stalling. In overtime Richardson was taken down and Castillo won to pull Boise within three points. Andy McCulley looked to put the dual away for the Pokes at 157. McCulley and Holden Packard battled a close match and sent it to overtime tied 1-1. In overtime #12 Andy McCulley gave up a takedown just 16 seconds in to pull Boise into a tie headed into the final match. However, after the match the Pokes were assessed a 1 point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

With the dual at 15-14 Boise State the Pokes needed a win from junior Dakota Freisth at 165, taking on Nick Wooden from the Broncos. Freisth dominated the match from the opening whistle and poured it on en route to an 8-3 decision over Wooden and earning the Cowboys a 17-15 victory over the ranked Broncos. The Cowboys are now 1-0 in the dual season. The Cowboys will next be in action on November 24^th when they head to Minneapolis to take on the #3 Minnesota Golden Gophers.